When we first moved from our house in the suburbs to a condominium in town, I worried about losing easy access to nature including the beach and Lake Michigan. At our old home we lived within four blocks of the lake, a county park, and a state park. The poorer air quality of the city was not what I was used to. And after surviving an exceptionally cold winter, even with the help of a snow-blowing service, I found the long, slippery walk to our detached garage wearying. I was looking forward to spring.
One day, while exploring the new neighborhood, I walked past a house a short distance down our street. From the sidewalk it appeared to hold a beautiful botanical garden. On a later walk I passed it again and found the owner out in front of her home. I stopped, introduced myself, and told her what a wonderful garden she had. She smiled, invited me into her “secret” garden, and gave me a tour. We sat together under the pergola and got acquainted.
She appeared to be in her eighties, lived alone and was recovering from a stroke, so her vocabulary was limited at the time. Even so, she led me proudly through every corner of her creation. The garden held a water feature, a re-circulating stream feeding two koi ponds, where large golden koi glided just beneath the surface. There were hostas and ferns, trees and flowering shrubs, Japanese iris, gladiolas, tulips, and hydrangeas, to name only a few. Pathways wound between the beds, and the pergola sat at the center of it all like a quiet room without walls. Each visit reveals something new, depending on the season.
Moria and I have since become friends. She has invited me to visit her garden anytime, and I take her up on it often. What a treat it is to sit in the pergola, surrounded by the beauty of nature and the fresh oxygen produced by all those plants. The world quiets there. My worries about air quality and slippery walks fall away, replaced by birdsong, the trickle of water, and the slow drift of the koi.
The lesson for me was simple: look, listen, and learn. There is beauty in nature everywhere even on an ordinary street in a town I had only just begun to call home. I just need to calm my mind, be present, and appreciate it. What I feared I had left behind in the suburbs, I found waiting a few doors down, tended by a gracious neighbor who opened her gate, and her friendship, to a stranger. Sometimes the nature we miss most is closer than we think.